Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Been there, Dunn that

TORONTO — So it’s the sixth inning and I’m blogging now, so sue me. Honestly, I was so dumbfounded by the fact that the Blue Jays were scoring 11 runs over the first two innings that I complete forgot about hopping on here. Ah, well. Better late than never.

With the Reds in town, Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi couldn’t escape questions about the recent controversy involving him and the Cincy slugger. As you probably know by now, Ricciardi made some comments last week during his weekly radio show, saying Dunn “lacked a passion for the game.” Dunn wasn’t happy.

On Tuesday, Ricciardi had this to say:

“I talked to Adam on Saturday, so I see it as a dead issue. I don’t know if he [accepted it] or if he didn’t, but I apologized. Actually, he called me. I tried to get his phone, but I wasn’t having any luck. So he called me and I told him I made a mistake. I apologized. I let my guard down, which I shouldn’t have done, but I did. That’s all I can do is apologize.”

Upon hearing that, Dunn said that phone conversation never took place. Caught up with Ricciardi up here in the pressbox later and he stuck by his story, insisting that he spoke with someone on Saturday who claimed to be Dunn. Ricciardi was at a loss, “All I know is the person I talked to said it was Adam Dunn. That’s quite a prank to pull.”

Somebody’s fibbing, but honestly, it’s reached the “Who cares?” realm, in my book. Ricciardi said what he said, he issued an apology either indirectly or directly to Dunn, Dunn didn’t reall sound like he accepted the apology, and let’s move on. Dunn’s not coming to Toronto.

Oh, yeah, it was Cito Gaston’s first appearance at the Rogers Centre since taking over as the manager. The fans responded with loud chants of “Cito! Gaston!” in the fifth inning.

NOTES: RHP Shaun Marcum (right elbow) is due to resume throwing on Saturday and Ricciardi said the pitcher will likely be out until after the All-Star Game. … Ricciardi again said there’s no timetable for the return of 2B Aaron Hill (concussion). … Ricciardi noted that LHP John Parrish is the “front-runner” for Saturday’s start against the Braves. … Former hitting coach Gary Denbo has been offered a job as Toronto’s roving Minor League hitting instructor. … Gaston indicated that shortstop is the one position he’s still trying to sort out the playing time for. Scutaro has started at short the past two games.

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2 Comments

I would think that after tonight Scutaro gets another start at short. How can he possibly tinker with the line-up. Honestly, my only complaint tonight was the a couple of subs weren’t used when the game was already won. Not a big deal at all.
It sucks to know that Aaron isn’t able to contribute to this though. Hopefully he can get back shortly after the all star break, i’m off to bed with a smile, goodbye everybody.

What’s not to like, 22 hits, 14 runs and only 1 given up by Burnett. It appears the Gaston, Tenace approach of see the ball, hit the ball is paying dividends, whereas the Gibbons/Denbo approach of patience and high OBP didn’t. In retrospect, maybe the patience approach made these guys too mechanical because the guys we have are simply aggressive hitters, not patient ones and trying to change them into patient ones didn’t work-who knows. They certainly have looked more relaxed and more aggressive at the plate the last two games resulting in two wins-let’s hope it continues.

I must admit, I have never understand why Cito never got another job as manager after the job he did here. I’m glad he’s back; I think he’s got real passion for winning in Toronto because of his big break becoming a MLB manager here. You can tell by watching him during a game, there’s still a whole lot of fire there and I think the players see it too-we will do well with him.

Now if we could just get JP to either tell the truth or keep his trap shut.

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